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Like Kathy Sherman, I do feed 25% of my horse's diet alfalfa. It is in the 
form of a 50/50 (or less if I can find it) orchard grass/alfalfa hay as half 
their diet, the other half Timothy. So:

50% Timothy
<25% Alfalfa
Balance Orchard Grass

I don't ever want them to arrive at a vet check, have my horse love the 
alfalfa, and have me standing there worried it will throw their systems into 
a revolt 'cause they never get it.

Ann Hall and I were talking about it on a ride we did, and she reminded me 
of all the great horses like El Karbaj, Witarazif, etc who only had 
alfafla...

Ranelle Rubin
R.Rubin Consulting

raneller@xxxxxxx

916-663-4140 home office
916-718-2427 cellular
916-848-3662 fax




> From: "Evelyn Allen" <totaleclipse2007@xxxxxxxxx>
> To: ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [RC]   Alfalfa as Feed
> Date: Sun, 8 Apr 2007 13:09:16 -0500
>
> We normally did not feed alfalfa to our horses, however, this winter we 
> felt
> their condition was not what it should be and we had an extremely cold 
> spell
> that lasted close to a month (with temperatures and wind combined for
> windchills of -48).  We do not stall our horses indoors unless the weather
> is really bad (ie: wet and freezing at the same time), as they have loose
> housing and other wind protection.  We normally feed them a grass/hay mix
> and feed it in large quantity when the temps warrant it, but still did not
> feel it was doing the job.  We started to add some alfalfa hay to their
> regular feed thinking to ensure their warmth and well-being and noticed a
> huge improvement in their condition and weight.  We are still feeding some
> alfalfa to them, although we do not feed it in large quantities - perhaps
> 1/4  bale per horse a day (not sure what that would be weight-wise), along
> with free-choice mixed grass hay.
>
> We are planning to compete in the 50 milers this summer, and while our
> winter temps are very low, the opposite is routinely true of our summer
> temps; they do climb quite high.  We can easily switch to beet pulp mix for
> the summer, but I'll tell you that trying to feed beet pulp to horses in 
> -40
> weather really doesn't work for us.
>
> Does anyone else feed at least some alfalfa to their endurance horses 
> during
> competition?  They just look so much better coming off winter this year 
> than
> last year when we fed them only a grass mix hay and some horse pellets.  
> But
> if it should be cut out for the summer, then so be it.



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